The Hare
The Hare & Hedgepig, or the H&H (as it is rather affectionately known) is a tea room 'catering to those who delight in thoughtful, courteous conversation in an intimate setting'. Located at 42 Museica Street (in the Mostly Harmless Village), it is a relaxing place for MuseBloggers, stressed from homework/school/procrastination, to unwind and enjoy some tea, sandwiches, cakes, or anything else from the menu/anything else by request. The current volume can be found here, at: http://www.musefanpage.com/blog/?p=6403. History The H&H was first started on March 29th, 2008 by the all-knowing GAPAs who sought to provide such an environment for the busy MBers. The Proprietors, the Lady Bunniful and Master Paul of Swinford, understood the importance of food and conversation in life, and created the first H&H thread. Since then, the H&H has grown more and more popular with both old and new MBers, and this has led to the creation of several volumes and numbers of the Hare & Hedgepig. The current H&H is of Vol. II, No. 5. Menu There is a beautifully decorated menu available for those who cannot make up their minds and wish to peruse through a gallery of choice, but the H&H is special in that one can order anything one wants to. The menu is subdivided into sections entitled 'Tea' 'Soft Beverages' 'Sandwiches' 'Breads & Cakes' and 'Embellishments'. However these lists are not restrictions, but simply guidelines as to the type of food you may want to enjoy. Something unique to the H&H tea room is the elusive, strange Wung Bean Cake. No one quite understands what they are, or even what a Wung itself is. However, this does not stop the eager MBers from ordering them in great quantity. A recent fad on the current number has been flapjacks, the British kind - these have grown mildly popular since being first introduced. Paker Paker is a unique card game played by Muse Academy students. It is also known as Iceland Hold 'Em. The rules are extraordinarily complex. Fortunately, one can get by fairly well by ignoring them completely. The rules stand thus, in long and short form: Long Version: There are at least eight major suits: Herons, Hares, Hedgepigs, Roses, Eclairs, Peanut Butter, Chorley Cakes, and Muffins. These consist of the usual rankings: Ace, King, Queen, Jack (or Knave), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (or Deuce). There are a multitude of combinations one can make from these, which create various effects on the game, and more are being invented all the time. In addition to the standard cards, there are several dozen rare cards, which either cannot be categorized into any suit (such as Anarchy, HPB, and Cheshire Cat) or are specialized variants of a suit (such as Wung of Jasmine or Mess of Eclairs), and have various specialized uses. These are also being invented throughout the game. A notable one is the Golden Wung, which can only be played by the High Bailiff and signifies the end of a round. When a round ends, all temporary rules in the previous round are made null unless otherwise specified. There are a great variety of points, the major ones being Creativity Ceylon and Wung. Wung points can only be placed on the table by the High Bailiff. They can be brought into play when the Bailiff awards them to a player or when a player lays a claim to them. In the latter case, a claim can be challenged by another player or players. The claimants then battle it out for the wung points. Wung points, once in the hands of a player, can be exchanged willingly between players or captured from a previous owner in a duel. Creativity Ceylon points can be arbitrarily created and awarded to other players once created, for acts of great honor or imagination. All kinds of points can be placed at the four cardinal directions to create various offensive and defensive positions. Short Version: Make it up as you go along. Paker was originally played in the H&H, however it was later moved to the Muse Academy Student Lounge following complaints that it had taken over our beloved tearoom. It was later relocated again to the Muse Academy Game Room after the lounge was dedicated to Paleophytes. Barkeep The barkeep, as he prefers to be called, is a devoted MBer who goes by the name of Piggy on the 'Blog. Piggy is the person to ask if you ever require any refreshments. To order, simply post a comment asking Piggy (politely) for whatever food item you would like. He regularly checks the current H&H thread for new orders as well as any relevant posts on the Recent Comments bar and will deliever whatever you wish (Within reason) to your table as soon as possible. Speen In Volume II, Number 1 of the H&H, an orphaned left bracket, in the words of Piggy, was noticed above the pictures below. Ens name turned out to be Speen. Speen was quickly determined to be a Wung, and adopted by Piggy. The left bracket vanished from above the picture, and Speen took up residence in Piggy's care. En presumably has been helping Piggy in the tearoom ever since. Speen was found on the 13 of March. Floom & Nelby Soon after Speen was adopted by Piggy, a new wung appeared, this one a right bracket. Speen informed Piggy, who passed on the message, that this new wung was Speen's cousin Floom. Piggy, Floom, and Speen picked Luna to be the guardian of this new wung. Nelby appeared later. The third wung looked like this: ^ It was seen at the top, in the spot Floom and Speen had previously occupied. After some debate, Nelby was given to AthenianPsyco, otherwise known as Loreena Chatheng. All three wungs soon after appeared below all the pictures, where they have remained since then. You may see them by simply going here. Other Speens Speen was named after Beavo's Rainbow Zebra Squid. Soon after Speen was happily adopted, RoseQuartz named a chipmunk she saw outside Speen. Errata nearly named a small, cute bug Speen, but changed her mind and decided on Mip instead. There was concern that the Speens would multiply and take over the Earth, but that does not seem to have happened, a year later. Tea Room Below are some delightful images of the official tea room banner, menu and a lovely portrait of H&H coziness. HH-banner.jpg|The Hare & Hedgepig Tea Room|link=http://www.musefanpage.com/blog/?p=4442 HH-menu-x1024.gif|The Hare & Hedgepig Menu tea-room-x450.gif|A corner of the tea room, showing the warmth of the lamps and the coziness of the sofas and cushions.